Computer mouses or computer mice?

Normally, the plural of mouse is mice when you are referring to those real rodents. However, in the case of a “mouse” used for the computer, can you still use the plural form “mice”, “computer mice” if you are referring to lots of computer mouse? “Computer mouses” i guess is not proper. What do you think?

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This is a tough one, because there really is no official ruling on this usage yet. Computer companies usually avoid this problem by using the phrase "mouse devices" instead. I would advise the same strategy if you mention the equipment in a formal paper, article, etc.

Since neither "mouses" nor "mice" is the official plural of "computer mouse," using either one is acceptable. Technically, since "mouse" is an acronym for "manually-operated user-select equipemtn," it sound probably be pluralized as "mouses." But since hardly anyone is aware of the word's etymology, and because it sounds less awkward, most people pluralize it as "mice."

<< If mouse is an acronym for "manually-operated user-select equipment" and equipment is plural already, wouldn't mouse (as an acronym) be plural already? >>

Technically, yes. However, since few people know that "mouse" is an acronym, writing the plural form as "mouse" would simply confuse your audience.

<< Would this really matter since usually a computer only has one computer mouse? >>

Yes, it does matter. The fact that one computer has only one mouse is irrelevant. There are many computer mouse devices in existence. What if you wanted to write about the variety of mouse devices at Office Max? Or compose an inventory of computer equipment for a company?

cold_fusionMX: Computer companies usually avoid this problem by using the phrase "mouse devices" instead???cold_fusionMX: weird..cold_fusionMX: sir we sell mouse devicesmei lang: heheh they didn't know the mouse is akready a devicecold_fusionMX: mouse is a device for PC..mei lang: it's like a computer shop saying...we also sell computerscold_fusionMX: so do u have device that could make ur mouse an iron?karuro11: you said u have mouse devices..mei lang: heh

Um, guys, Doug Engelbart invented the mouse. He called it a mouse cause he thought it was cute AND the long cord reminded him of the disproportionately long tail on a real mouse. It is NOT a legitimate acronym. The letters MOUSE can, indeed, stand for the phrases you folks stated, but those letter assignments were made AFTER Engelbart coined the term.

Everyplace I have ever worked, we called the plural "mice" as in "are there any extra mice around?". Presumably that would not be ambiguous except in a lab setting with both lab mice and computer mice!

I'm sorry. I'm afraid I have to agree with Bubba. From now on, I'm going to refer to it as a computer MOOSE. and when I have TWO computers, I'm gonna have TWO computer MOOSE!!!!After all, the MOOSE is a cute animal, but its tail is rather stubby. I guess that would make mine a WIRELESS MOOSE!!!!

Well, 40 years in computers , and a mouse user since they first became commercially available, I have yet to hear the plural as being anything but "computer mice". And thank God for that. Mouses is a totally unutterable usage and should be subject to a Rentokil extermination.

I have recently been in an argument with a fellow student who is decided on it being "mice". I believe that it dosnt really matter, no matter what it is, the Americanish language has so many slangs already, like for instance if I were to say F***, you would all think I were swearing, but in reality, the word was officaily a word used to express "to plow". So I do believe it dosnt matter much anyway.... cause everyone knows what you mean. Why does everyone have to be so troublesome?

I believe "manually-operated user-select equipment" is an attempt at a joke. Since 1964 when the first mouse was introduced by creator and inventor Douglas Engelbart, the device has been called a mouse simply because Engelbart thought the cord coming out of the small, wooden, three button device made it look like a mouse.

As for the mouses/mice/meese/moose debate. I have not seen "mouse devices" used but I have seen "computer mice" but by far, the most common plural I have seen, and in fact use, is "periphreals."

Riqui, I swear I didn't realize who you were when I typed this rebuttal, but then I looked at the user name and hovered over it and sure 'nuff, it was you.Anyway, the problem with just referring to mice/meese/mouses/mousse (mmm.. chocolate computer devices) as peripherals is problematic in at least 2 ways: Firstly, the mouse on my computer isn't a peripheral. It's built-in, in the form of a touch pad, but is still referred to as a mouse in the manual; secondly, if you go to CompUSA and ask for "peripherals," you'll get directed to not only mice (as I'll refer to them because it's how I always have, and people know what I've meant), but speakers, printers, external hard drives, and anything else that can plug in to your computer.As far as what to call them "officially," I say, if the guy who invented the thing named it after the furry critter, and the plural form of said critter is "mice," then the plural form of the device is "mice" as well.

Although, the English language can be quite confusing when it comes to pluralising a word, because it doesn't follow a strict convention. Therefore, maybe "mouses" could be acceptable. Afterall, we accept things like "persons" as plural for "person" when in fact it should be "people."

Everyday upon waking till we return to bed, we are inundated with NEEDLESS rules: what fork must I use, when is it improper to laugh, to hug to kiss or breast feed my infant. "Mouses" has become absolutely refreshing and gets my vote!

Damn, here i was looking for confirmation to explain to my Spanish students about the mouses/mice debate.According to Steven Pinker in "The Language Instinct" there are headless nouns (John above calls them exocentric where the right-hand element does not denominate the type of thing (a race hores is a type of horse, a horse race is a type of race). In words like low-life and sabre-tooth, they aren't types of life or teeth but a person who lives a seedy lifestyle and an extinct cat. Therefore we automatically block off the irregular plural and say low-lifes and sabre-tooths.Similarly, plural of Walkman is Walkmans, not Walkmen, cos it isn't a type of man.(similarly according to Pinker, in baseball, a ball that flies out in the past is "flied out", not flew out- tho don't follow the sport so not really sure)Does all this apply to (computer) mouse?Dunno, but mouses sounds more logical to me. Some people think plural of octopus is octopi. Doesn't much matter really

al gets my vote for computer mouses from a logical linguistic stand but I could be persuaded to to take on ao's "myse", sfter all how many thousands of new words have been invented for the technological revolution.

While this thread has gone on for years now (Yearses?) why not keep it going? Yes people say ATM Machine; but they are wrong. How do I know they're wrong? Because I say so.

I have a magazine from either "RUN", "Compute!", or "Byte" from the early '80s in a box in my garage somewhere that discuses mouses. The box is easy to find since it's labeled "Commodore-64". It specifically states that mouse is an acronym. I don't care what the inventor says. He's wrong too! How do I know? See previous paragraph.

But aren't acronyms capitalized? (With the exection of special acronyms: scuba, radar, I'm sure there are dozens more) I think mouse is the most special of acronyms, just like YAHOO. Can you look up an acronym on an acronym? Hmmm.

[edit] Etymology and pluralThe first known publication of the term "mouse" as a pointing device is in Bill English's 1965 publication "Computer-Aided Display Control"[2]

The Compact Oxford English Dictionary (third edition) and the fourth edition of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language endorse both computer mice and computer mouses as correct plural forms for computer mouse. The form Mouse, however, appears most commonly, while some authors of technical documents may prefer either mouse devices or the more generic pointing devices. The plural mouses treats mouse as a "headless noun."

i think its a very interesting topic. The views of Whitey are very informative and i took this on board while trying to search for my solution. After hours of deliberation and a thesis conducted by myself last year i came up with the following conclusion:

does it matter much? u know what i mean what eva i say, thats what language is for!

though most people agreed from my surveys that it was mousification units!

For those of you running Windows XP (possibly other operating systems, too), if you go to "device manager" you will find that your mouse is listed under "Mice and other pointing devices". I guess that means that Microsoft prefers "mice".

I think people should respect academic issues for the value they add to our society. Making comments that don't edify anyone - even the writer! - is, to say the least, like clouds and wind without rain.

It used to be common among hackers (in the MIT sense) to pluralize things using the (normally non-productive) suffix -en (as in oxen). Thus, the correct plural for (computer) mouse is undoubtedly...mousen!

"Unless of course they are the sort of people who do not approve of prepositions at the end of sentences, when we do well to ignore them" --Stevens

This sort of rule monger-er seems to me the majority of those posting messages on this board. Of course the particular rule you mention is now disgraced, but there are plenty of others. Also, such people are hard to ignore as they are often in powerful positions.

It is mouses. I've read from several sources, including PC Gamer, PC Maximum, online sources, as well as television programs that all say "Computer Mouses" is the official pronunciation, while "mice" is acceptable. I personally have always said mouses, as well have many of my friends and family members. I leave on this:MOUSES +1 VOTE

Well, on a lighter note, since we - non-feline folk - can't decide it, shan't we call in a real cat to tell us what's what? At least a cat would be able to tell where his mouse is buttered -- I beg your pardon, how his MICE are plural(ised)!

Throwing my vote into the hat with mouses. Some lady corrected me today, all condescending, "I think you mean MICE." I wanted to argue with her, but wasn't completely sure I was right. Apparently there's no consensus, but at the very least it seems mouses is an accepted form (and seems to have the majority in this thread).

I am a student in the OIT department for my university and I had to put several mouses, mice, meeses, myse, mousen away today and that's what brought me here... geeks are awesome! great debate! ( I thought mouses sounded right due to walkman/ walkmans but I wasn't sure-now I am REALLY not sure- Microsoft or Oxford Dictionary)

I think it would sound gramatically incorrect to refer two of these devices as mouses. Lets not worry about the etymology of the term. Dont you see it really look like a real mouse...therefore, mice when two or more.

"...when has definition ever affected pluralization?" As well as the "exocentric" compounds already mentioned, here's another example of a different kind: index in the sense of a serial number (e.g. in a formula or indexed table) has the plural 'indices', but books have alphabetical 'indexes' at the end. Bringing the Google vote up to date, its now Mice 43,000,000; Mouses 8,070,000; Mouse devices 98,600 and (my favourite till today) Mouse units a mere 1,290. So I guess I'll use mouses in speech (while it's still plausible), but in formal writing I'll have to change from mouse units to mouse devices. Definitely out, though, is Mouse pointers, which is used to mean Cursors.

it's rather unfortunate that,Douglas is no more.anyway,if Douglas named the device after the living creature 'mouse',he never gave a plural form of the device and so it'll remain that way.the only mention name that i'll go by is 'mouse devices' as the plural of the computer mouse.i think it's a matter of preferance,be it mice,mouses,meeses or mooses because not any one of them is said to be wrong.

It's been that way since Old English:mus > mys ... mouse > micelus > lys ... louse > licehus > hus ... plural for hus in OE was betokened by make the article plural. Once the article became fixed and no longer showed gender and number, then house was regularized by adding an 's'.

The word mongoose comes from Marathi maṅgūs. The anglicized spelling has nothing to do with its plural form and, as is normal for most outlander words, it was given the regularized English 's' plural form.

Mongeese is noted so often that maybe it should be thought of as alternativ plural! However, Google NGrams show that mongooses still heavily outnumbers mongeese in usage but, hey, mongeese doesn't hurt my ears.

I worked with a Tech guy awhile, and we prefer calling them "mice," after the Rodent. We don't call them computer mice, just Mice. but hey, this topic is long enough to where it's become more of a rant.

Someone said earlier that mouse is an acronym for "Manually Operated User Selection Equipment". This is wrong. That is a backronym: a fictitious acronym made up after the fact. Those of us who were there when this all happened know it is called a mouse because it vaguely resembles one.

I prefer to say/write "mouses". It sounds better to me than computer mice. Let rodents be rodents and distinguish it. I sometimes have two computer mouses on my table, but they just stand still on their place, they don´t have eyes, legs and I'm sure they don´t run across my table all the time (without my interference). They aren´t afraid of me, as well (or at least I hope so :D) so there´s no reason for me to call them like animals.

I have my doubts on what PimpleMaze said, in my country we speak spanish, and we dont say, " Quiero comprar un ratón". We say, "Quiero comprar un Mouse" (Quiero comprar un... = I want to buy a... in spanish) but i don't know, the creators didn't made a plural form for it, so we can be creative with it I think. Give me three of those mouse things.

I had this question in a computer test about 20 years ago. M.O.U.S.E actually stands for "M.ovement O.riented U.ser S.ignal E.quipment and because the original non wireless device looks like a mouse with a tail. I think it was born in Xerox labs in Palo Alto way before Microsoft Windows.